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Our music is for the world: Rup of fusion band Josh

Mumbai, July 16 (IANS) Pop music doesn’t exist in India any more and the market continues to be dominated by Bollywood, says Rupinder Magon, famously known as Rup of the Montreal-based fusion band Josh. He stresses that they make music for the world.

Josh has just released a new album “Beyond Kismat” and Rup says their music is released here as part of an international package.

“Pop albums and pop music don’t exist in India now. The truth of the matter is that because we live in Canada and because we are in different areas, we release our music at an international level and the music is released everywhere — from the US, Canada to the UK, the Middle East, Australia and many more places.”

“So, for us, India is another territory and not the only territory. We make music for the world and India is one of our spots,” Rup told IANS in an interview.

“But people here do want pop music apart from Bollywood music. We get hundreds of emails asking us about our new album and stuff. They are interested, but still the market is dominated by Bollywood,” he added.

Josh, with Rup and Qurram Hussain, is known for songs with both modern and traditional bhangra beats and strong influences of hip hop and pop.

Starting off with “Main Hoon Tanha” in 2001, they released two more albums “Kabhi” in 2004 and “Mausam” in 2006. Now, after a gap of five years, Josh is returning with “Beyond Kismat”.

“It is a project that has taken us about five years to complete. We recorded over 35 songs for this album and then we chose the top eight songs. It is an amalgamation of all the experiences that we had while travelling and doing shows in all parts of the world,” Rup said.

“From the musical aspect, it has been a little bit of a departure from our original sound because we have experimented with everything from house beats to a raw bhangra feel in some songs.”

“There will definitely be that one Josh sound and I think that’s because our vocals lend a lot to our style. So when it comes to singing style and how we harmonise, that’s one thing that keeps that sound of ours together. But otherwise when it comes to music, that has taken a different way,” he added.

So what are the other reasons to wait for five years?

“We were travelling a lot. There were many things going on in our personal lives as well. We were living in different parts of Canada. I was in Toronto and Qurram was in Montreal; so there were different things happening. We were doing a lot of shows abroad. So with all these things combined, it took us a little more time this time to get the album out,” he expressed.

Josh has earlier also collaborated with Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado.